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TRAVEL NEWS

Catania airport ‘chaos’: What should passengers expect?

Travellers to and from the Italian island of Sicily were still reporting a “nightmare” situation more than two weeks after a fire partially closed Catania’s airport.

Alitalia planes at an Italian airport
Flights to and from Catania's Vincenzo Bellini airport were suspended after Etna's eruption. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

After a major fire ripped through Catania airport on July 16th, the initial planned reopening date for the terminal buildings has been and gone and most flights scheduled from the airport were still being cancelled or diverted this week.

Some flights from the airport have now resumed, but there were reports of chaotic scenes and a lack of facilities for passengers as they queued under makeshift canvas shelters at the terminal this week.

With limited access for passengers to the airport’s Terminal C, and Terminal A still closed, many passengers were left queuing outside the airport building with no shade or toilet facilities, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Passengers waiting for flights at the airport described the situation as “chaos” and a “nightmare”, Corriere reported.

Passengers posting on social media said flight departures were announced, in Italian only, by staff using a megaphone or simply shouting near the terminal entrance as people queued outside.

The airport asked passengers departing from Catania not to arrive more than three hours before their flight because of the lack of space.

Anyone with a flight scheduled to depart from Catania was also advised to double check the status with their airline before setting off, with a large number of passengers saying they had missed their flights due to a lack of communication from airlines.

Some airlines, including Jet2, had cancelled all flights to and from Catania until August 3rd.

READ ALSO: Why are flights to and from Italy so expensive this summer?

Others including ITA and Ryanair were diverting flights to Palermo, Comiso or Trapani airports elsewhere on the island.

Catania airport has laid on buses to these airports leaving from outside the terminal – the schedules were being published daily on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

However, many passengers were reportedly only being told where their flight would arrive or depart from around 12 hours before they were due to fly.

Several passengers at Catania airport on Tuesday told Corriere they had found out less than two hours before their flight that it had been diverted to Trapani or Palermo, and they wouldn’t be able to get there in time.

Catania airport was operating at 50 percent of its usual capacity on Tuesday, with five flights departing every hour and five arriving.

Things were hoped to improve this week as a temporary terminal for departures was being set up by the Italian military, allowing more flights from the airport to resume.

The temporary terminal was being constructed under tents with facilities for check-in, security control and boarding, according to reports.

It remained unclear on Wednesday when Terminal A, where the fire happened, may be operational again. The airport had announced August 4th and 5th as likely reopening dates.

The airport’s management has faced widespread criticism over the situation and its impact on Sicily’s tourism industry during the busiest weeks of the year.

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TRAVEL NEWS

How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE

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